Yesterday we discussed betting futures on today’s election. Today, real futures! The Apollo Group, they own U of Phoenix among other for-profit ventures, is having some trouble with backdated options (who says that education can’t be just like other industries!) The CFO was sacked end of last week.
This reminds me, keep hearing a lot of buzz about some public for-profit education companies going private…and that seems to be something of a trend? It’s hard not to think that pressure from Wall Street caused Edison Schools to make some bad decisions and some other companies seem to think the increased freedom of action of being private would be good for business. Education is a tough field, long time horizons, political, and all the rest so it’s certainly not a baseless approach. But can they find the private equity? The Florida teacher pension fund can only bankroll so many for-profit education ventures at once!